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Rescue team from Columbus deployed for Hurricane Matthew

Traffic stacks up on I-75 North fleeing the coast and Hurricane Matthew on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016, near McDonough. FEMA officials said Thursday that crews were deployed to emergency operation centers in Albany, Georgia, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The agency says more than 444,000 liters of water and 513,000 meals along with thousands of cots and blankets will be on site. Jim Butterworth, director at the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, says he expects the storm to arrive in coastal Georgia late Friday and continue through Saturday night.
Traffic stacks up on I-75 North fleeing the coast and Hurricane Matthew on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016, near McDonough. FEMA officials said Thursday that crews were deployed to emergency operation centers in Albany, Georgia, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The agency says more than 444,000 liters of water and 513,000 meals along with thousands of cots and blankets will be on site. Jim Butterworth, director at the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, says he expects the storm to arrive in coastal Georgia late Friday and continue through Saturday night. Curtis Compton Associated Press

Highly trained personnel from Columbus Fire & Emergency Medical Services and other regional agencies are deploying to the Georgia coast as Hurricane Matthew barrels toward the Atlantic coast.

Assistant Chief, Robert Futrell, who serves as the leader of Georgia Search and Rescue West Central Task Force 4A , said a convoy of special vehicles, boats and other equipment will depart from its drill field along 10th Avenue near the Farmers Market on Friday. About 36 members of the Task Force will spend the night in Perry, Ga., before departing Saturday to its assigned location which hasn’t been determined.

Columbus Fire Marshal Ricky Shores, the planning section officer in the group, said the Task Force will be deployed until there are no more lives in immediate danger. “We will be engaged in life safety operations wherever we will be deployed,” he said.

The team is one of eight in Georgia and works as a state team. It is deployed through the Georgia Emergency Management Agency for regional emergencies such as hurricanes, floods, industrial accidents, terrorist attacks or any other natural or man-made disaster that requires highly skilled search and rescue personnel.

Shores said the team has about 24 highly skilled Columbus firefighters. “The city will have to backfill those positions, and they are in the process of doing that now,” he said. “Other firefighters will have to work overtime.”

The firefighters have been training for years to deal with catastrophic emergencies. “We are proud, to be honest,” he said. “It’s a large operation.”

While the Task Force is deployed, fire trucks and ambulances in the city will be running at normal capacity, Shores said. “This storm is going to be like nothing we have ever seen on the east coast,” he said. “It’s a killer. It’s going to take lives. There is no doubt about it.”

Other departments with members on the team include Opelika Fire Department, Auburn Fire Department, Phenix City Fire and Rescue in Alabama, and Harris County Emergency Medical Services, LaGrange Fire Department, Stewart County Emergency Medical Services & Fire, Marion County Emergency Medical Services and South Georgia Search Dogs.

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 8:21 PM with the headline "Rescue team from Columbus deployed for Hurricane Matthew."

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